Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
"So Big"
by Edna Farber
INCLUSION MILESTONES
1925
• Scopes teaches evolution knowing he'll be indicted
• Act of Congress recognizes Native Americans as citizens
• Hubble documents Milky Way is one of many galaxies
AUTHOR INSPIRATIONS
Ferber grew up in the Midwest in a family that moved frequently due to her father’s financial hard times then early death. Tenacious Antje Wagemeester Paarlberg, a South Holland, IL pioneer widow born in Holland, likely inspiration for main character.
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– Share your key take-away about inclusion in this book in a sentence or two.
– Write a paragraph or two (up to 250 words) to describe your thoughts on exclusion/inclusion in the book, why you related or did not connect with the book, and why you think reading, inclusion and dialog about inclusion matter.
– Identify the name and website address of a cause you support with an inclusive mission.
Young widow values beauty, creates successful farm; son chases money.
Huge auction bids on dainty lunch box curated by new-in-town schoolteacher.
Celebrates rise to success of a woman at a time when women were recently granted the right to vote.
Fast read: 283 pages, 10 hours
Choose action, not pity or regrets.
Young widow mom defies society’s traditional female roles and becomes a successful farmer and entrepreneur.
Dutch immigrant farmers with limited education welcome intellectual young teacher.
Houseman slurred with terms like “correct little Jap.”
Woman marries rich older man because he has money.
College boy abandons friend because frat boys dismiss her as someone who won’t be helpful to him; same young man pursues money instead of dream career path.
Woman critical of artifices used by youth-seekers.
This is a farm-to-table meal of course. Serve jade and burgundy cabbages that shine like jewels, dried apples, potatoes, squash and, possibly, heritage pasture-raised pork.
“People are either wheat or emeralds.”
Dine outdoors. Use veggies and flowers to decorate your table which you might want to cover with a red and white checked cloth. Break out the bone-handled cutlery and vintage and rustic serve ware.
What stereotypes were broken or leaned into in a big way?
When were you surprised by discrimination or the lack of it?
Discuss the definition of beauty and the role of fashion in the novel, when the novel was written, and today.
How did intelligence, education, and speech factor into relationships and character development in the novel?
Compare the trajectories of the mother and son and why they were so different.
What makes a person a great subject for a portrait?
Where do you see overlap between the characteristics of entrepreneurs and artists?
What is it like to be an independent organic farmer today?
Who were the muckrakers in the novel and in the early 1900s?
Visit the farm of Antje Paarlberg in South Holland, IL at Paxton Avenue near 172nd Place, ideally during the celebration of the Paarlberg Heritage Festival. Next, take a vegetable truck or vintage sportscar into Chicago. Go to the Art Institute of Chicago and study portraits of women as well as American Gothic. Enjoy a Chicago riverboat architecture tour, splurge on wine-colored cashmere, or gamble.
So Big (the 1953 version or another) and ten of Ferber’s other novels were adapted as Hollywood films.
Dawn O'Hara: The Girl Who Laughed (1911), Cheerful, by Request (1913), Fanny Herself (1917), The Girls (1921), Gigolo (1922), Show Boat (1926), Stage Door (1926), Mother Knows Best (1927), Cimarron (1930), American Beauty (1931), Come and Get It (1934), Nobody’s in Town (1938), Saratoga Trunk (1941), Great Son (1944), Giant (1952), Ice Palace (1958), A Kind of Magic (2013).